Our Personal Testimony is the Most Powerful Thing We Have

Hola familia!

My Turkey Cookie. Our District made these on P-day last week. Thanks Mom!

Yeah, Christmas time always is super busy with all of the concerts and ward stuff and all the crazy things. Just don't forgot to make time to go see the lights in Coeur d'Alene sometime! Is it a little better without the store though? I bet uncle Ben is pretty busy. We've been keeping pretty busy like always.

So the word has come in from the mission leader conference. For Christmas music we can listen to anything that's not "Hip-Hop" or more intense. Which means all of the classic Christmas songs, not just hymns. Which means Michael Buble's Christmas CD is approved. :D The only other CD I'm missing right now that I can think of is that Josh Groban one. I'm excited for the pre-Christmas package for sure! 

Yeah, BYU Provo took forever to respond. I'm sure Cassidy will get in though. Canute (Dylan's RA from last year at BYU) is in some kind of computer science major too. He sent all the missionaries a whole bunch of pictures of Whitney Hall being torn down, little by little. It was super sad.

This week was super duper awesome. We had TWO people get baptized on Sunday!!! It's a Christmas miracle! First we have Santiago. He married a member months ago and has been living with her parents, coming to Church every week and even paying his tithing. Last week he finally gave in, gave us the word, and now he's baptized! 

And then there's Nick. He's nine. The Morenos have been less active for a long time, apart from their oldest son and daughter who come to Church every once in a while. We finally caught the parents at home a few weeks ago and they were all like, "yeah there were some missionaries coming over a long time ago but then we lost contact with them." So now they've been making time, putting sports aside and everything to come to Church. And Kevin even baptized Nick, which was awesome.

Also this week, Elder Tad R Callister is coming to the mission and giving a bunch of conferences for the missionaries and all the members. We have ours on Friday. It'll be super spiritual and I'm sure we're all going to learn so much and get all kinds of inspiration.

Definitely bearing testimony is super important in missionary work. I read a talk last week from like 50 years ago, but it said that the most important roles of missionaries is to testify and challenge. We bear testimony of the truth of the gospel so the Spirit can carry our words to their hearts, and then we challenge people to make changes in their lives to see the blessings and feel the Spirit more strongly themselves. Missionaries love to make commitments. Commitments are an act of faith, and when people keep them they help change their lives, which is repentance. As people repent and feel the spirit they prepare to make covenants and come unto Christ. The only reason we teach lessons is because sometimes people are stubborn and don't want to recognize the spirit or admit they need to change. Our personal testimony really is the most powerful thing we have, to strengthen us in our own lives as well as bringing others to the fold of Christ.

Well I love you all so much!!! I'll talk to you all pretty soon. I heard we get to Skype on Christmas Eve or Christmas for 45 minutes. Man the time flies!!!

Love,

Elder Dylan Young

We're dreaming of a White Christmas

Hola familia!!!

The new house looks great! That is, if it really is a new house and you didn't just paint the old one. :P

Man when I learned I would be going to Texas for two years I never expected I would end up feeling cold. Some of the other missionaries were making fun of me for having those gloves you sent me. We sure showed them. As long as I have the sweater and the rain jacket on I stay plenty warm. I could maybe use another sweater, but for the most part it's just going to sit in my suitcase all year. One is fine.

The District wearing our sweaters in Southeastern Texas!

I bet everyone missed your pies for Thanksgiving! Is Katniss super cute? Have you seen Catching Fire yet? Our Thanksgiving down here was super great. We had lunch with a family whose dad we baptized a few months ago. It was regular Thanksgiving food: turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, plus some mexican style rice for good measure. No tortillas though, that would've completed the meal. Then for dinner we ate with the same family we went to for Halloween. We had standard Thanksgiving food there as well. It was all amazing. We still have an entire pie left in our fridge. We're planning on decorating those turkey cookies today. Oh, also, the day before Thanksgiving we ate with the Spanish ward mission leader, Edgar. Standard Thanksgiving plus some ham as well. Everything was super duper good and I stuffed myself. It was Elder Flores' first Thanksgiving and he ate a decent amount. Not as much as us fat americans but still good. Some of the other Elders had 6 dinners in a row on Thanksgiving, pobrecitos ("poor things"). One of them threw up afterward. Hopefully that doesn't happen to us on Christmas.

I'm pretty sure I've been sleeping better with Pupilodicus. I'm not sure what would be on my Christmas list, other than some Mormon Messages DVDs. They're super cool not only for introducing the Prophet and Apostles to people but to help when teaching members. Another thing that might help is a CD with some general conference talks or even the Book of Mormon in Spanish, just to practice listening and understanding. Or I could get some CDs and make those pretty easy, I think. I don't know what Elder Flores would want. He just said whatever. If you want to send something go for it. He's super cool. He's actually the only member in his family and was baptized when he was 15. His testimony and faith are super strong, it's great. :)

I have no idea how Skype will work yet. I'll let you know when we get there. I can't believe it's already December! Six months out. It doesn't even seem real.

We had a miracle yesterday as we were fasting. Not only did all of our investigators come to church (I think for the first time,) but the guy who married a member and has been paying his tithing for months finally decided to get baptized next week. Woo!!! It's a Christmas miracle (I'm dreaming of a white christmas... :P) Actually that's something we could make for a ward vision: let's all dream of a white Christmas as we fill the baptismal fonts with white.

Well, I love you all so much!!! Everyone be safe out in the snow!

~Elder Young

Our District - THE UNiT

Hola Familia!!!

Man your week was crazy!!! That's super cool that Dallin H Oaks came down. I'll have to ask Jacob to tell me all about the plane ride. I bet it was super cool. It seems like every single talk and conference now a days is about missionary work, which is super cool. The work is hastening onward for sure. Tell Abby congrats for me!

If you couldn't get someone out of your mind, it probably means something. One thing they teach the missionaries is that whenever you don't feel like doing something, as long as it's not something bad obviously, then that probably means you need to do it and do it soon. I know the opportunity and the right time will present itself in one way or another. 2 Timothy 1:7 is a scripture that my trainer shared with me one time that helped a lot with going out and talking with everyone.

You're actually moving. I don't believe it. A tennis court and everything? That's gonna be awesome. So is the new house going to be all one floor? Or are you just going to install an elevator from the get go?

I'm glad Belle turned out okay. She's still got a while left in her. Is she still super cute and everything?

Well this week was crazy here too. They did tell me I was training in the call but it turns out my companion Elder Flores already had about 6 months in Peru waiting for his Visa and 6 weeks in the Provo MTC. So he's older than me in missionary years but I'm still technically senior comp. Like some kind of adopted father. My Spanish is gonna skyrocket as I help him learn English, for sure.

It's funny because my trainers were both completely different. But they both managed to get work done and get people baptized, just by going about things a lot differently. I guess I just had a lot to learn on both sides of the spectrum.

Elder Flores is great. He's from Lima, Peru, and is the only member in his family. He was baptized when he was 15 and met the Elders by trying to annoy them. He's super great and knows the scriptures super well. He loves the missionary work and works hard.

For Thanksgiving we already have a couple plans, for lunch and dinner, with some different members of the ward. We're getting fed at least once every day this week, which is awesome.

Chocolate Pop-tart with rice. I don't know who I am anymore!

This week we had something crazy. It was cold!!! Even with our sweaters and gloves it was still freezing outside. Maybe I'm just used to the heat or something. Friday was crazy though, it was raining like crazy and we got super soaked. Thankfully a member gave us a ride home at the end of the day and even bought us pizza to warm us up.

We stopped by a less active family last night and finally caught everyone at home. Out of the blue the dad said "yeah we keep forgetting to get our son baptized. You can all come over like every night and teach him everything." Milagro!!! We definitely always need to remember that the Lord works in His own time. As long as we do everything we know we should do and keep up the faith, the blessings will come.

I love you all so much!!!! Keep on sharing the gospel everywhere you go!!!

~Elder Young

Happy Thanksgiving!